Jean Phillips Takes Vegetables to the Next Level

Jean Phillips knows how to adapt. Twelve year ago, when making
a living from dairying got too tough, the Germantown, Md., farmer
jumped full-time into selling straw and hay to construction companies.

But builders didn't buy much of her product in July and August.
"There were always six weeks where we didn't do any business."
she days.

So she started raising sweet corn "to make it through the
dry period. We already had a crew of people hired, and nothing
to do that time of year."

Since her first foray into vegetable production, Jean and her
son Russell have branched out into raising 15 varieties of sweet
corn-as well as popcorn, Indian corn and field corn-tomatoes,
cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, peppers, pumpkins and squash.

"January and February are pretty calm for us," she
says. But the rest of the year, starting in March when she raises
the transplants for vegetable seedlings, is full speed ahead.
In fact, vegetables keep her so busy that Phillips sold the hay
production business so she could keep up.

About 50 percent of Jean and Russell's total sales are from 140
acres of sweet corn they truck to Giant grocery stores. They also
sell much of their tomato crop and some cantaloupe to the large
chain. Most of the rest of the produce is sold through their four
stands, with the remainder going to farmers' markets and wholesalers.

Before approaching Giant three years ago, Phillips was already
selling a limited amount of corn to Weis supermarkets. Encouraged
with the results, she planted even more corn the next year and
approached the produce manager at the local Giant. " I asked
if he ever bought any local produce, and the chain was just starting
a program to do so. We called the manager, and within a couple
of days, he was on the farm and asking us to ship 1,600 dozen
that first day."

Now, "They have given us an oral agreement that they will
take as much corn as we can sell them as long as we keep the quality
high. Sometimes the local stores are pretty full and they need
us to go to a different region," says Phillips. But "They
have never turned down one of our loads. The farthest we've had
to ship is down to Warrenton, Va., and that's not bad. It's about
50 to 75 miles away."

Grower and grocer are partners, she says. The chain guarantees
a fair, steady price that doesn't sink when the market is glutted
and doesn't rocket when produce is sparse. In return, "We
give the quality they expect when they expect it. We have to make
sure Giant's program succeeds. If it doesn't attract extra customers.
Where's the incentive for them to work with us? Because it's more
expensive to deal with individual farmer, we have to give them
a product so their sales go up."

Mission accomplished, says Bob Hartman, fresh local buyer for
Giant. "Traditionally, sales are soft in the summer. People
are on vacation, they eat out......The first year we ran the local
produce program, we noticed a very large increase in sales in
summer. Last year, sales were darn near double the total of the
year before."

If you're interested in marketing to Giant, says Hartman, there
are no complicated requirements or regulations. Getting your goods
in its doors is simple. You've got to be close enough to truck
your goods, and you have to grow what Giant needs.

"We can only sell so many tomatoes and so much squash, and
we have over 100 growers on our list at this time. But if someone
has something in specific area that's not already being grown,
I would potentially take them on," Hartman says.

WORKING WITH SUPERMARKETS, says Phillips, means "You're
going to have to be willing to package the material however the
supermarket wants it packaged. Many farmers pack tomatoes in wooden
baskets. Well, no supermarket is going to take them like that.
They won't stack. You'll also have to see how the store wants
your produce graded. For example, a tomato that's ready to put
on a table will be mush at a supermarket. You want the tomatoes
almost vine-ripened."

When you know what the store wants, and it's agreed to try your
produce, ship a satisfactory product. "You want that first
shipment to look great. You want them to be "wowed.' You
have to remember they're not a receptacle for your trash. You
have to take losses when you're growing this stuff," Phillips
says. If you send poor produce, she continues, "They're going
to remember big time where it came from, You have to treat them
right."

To make sure their largest customer is satisfied, Jean and Russell
pay attention to details and stay flexible. "We're willing
to do a few little things that make things nicer for Giant. Tomatoes
are extremely perishable, so we'll put 10 or 15 boxes of early
breaker on the bottom of the pallet, with 15 breakers in the middle,
and 15 ready to put on the shelf on top." That way, they
know the ones on the bottom won't be rotten by the time the store
gets to them, she explains.

To ensure that corn doesn't get wind-and sunburned, the Phillips's
bought a refrigerated box truck, "so corn picked cool in
the morning is iced and gets to the store in much better shape
than if it were on an open truck," says Jean.

When Giant calls, the Phillips jump. "They have called us
at six on Sunday morning requesting corn and we've had their order
to them by 10."

When they've not picking for or trucking to giant, the Phillips
are marketing directly to customers at farmers' markets, their
own roadside stands and wholesalers. Phillips says retail selling
is a whole different world from shipping a raw product to a processor.

"This isn't for everybody. There is a lot of aggravation
with it. You have a lot of people demanding things and pushing
and pulling you in different ways.

"A lot of people don't have the patience to deal with that.
They're interested in growing, and at the end they want to put
it on a truck and be done with it. But vegetable sales just don't
work that way. You have a lot of customer relationships you have
to deal with. No matter how good your product is. you have to
deal with customers saying 'I got a bad watermelon or corn with
worms,' and you have to smile and give them their money back or
give them another one even though you know it probably wasn't
all that bad."

You've got to find and court potential customer. Besides the
obvious tactic of long-term advertising in the Yellow Pages and
short-term advertising in the newspaper when the corn is ready,
"We do a lot of things where we don't get a lot of monetary
return, but they're good for the community and gain us publicity,"
Phillips says.

"We give students at an elementary school a free hayride
during their fund-raiser. They pay for insurance, so it just costs
our time, but not real money. And it develops a good relationship
with the community. A lot of times when you do that, parents say,
'They donated a hayride, we should go there and get our pumpkin.'"

Once families are at her roadside stand, they find much more
than vegetables to keep their attention. "We have animals
for the kids to pet, a haystack to climb and a tunnel for them
to crawl through. We find the kids say 'Come on, let's go to the
Phillips' and play.' The parents feel guilty letting them play
there without buying something. We usually close the home stand
in September, but we leave the gate open with a sign saying 'Welcome.
enjoy the animals.' On most afternoons there will be two or three
kids running around. They have their parents well-trained."

To cater to the older generation, the Phillips recently began
selling produce at a retirement home.

And they help the poor each year by letting a food bank work
group called the Gleaners harvest produce that is okay to eat,
but which is not the right size or shape for selling. "That
ended up as a front-page story in the newspaper," says Phillips.

We host a jousting tournament and the Montgomery County Ag Farm
Day. We're listed in the Maryland Roadside Markets flier in the
libraries and different places, and we're listed as a grower on
the Montgomery County Farm Tour. This past year we gave away raw
sweet corn samplers as well as coupons good for half-dozen ears
of corn or a "spooky" pumpkin (a child-sized pumpkin)
at our stand at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. We have
had a lot of people coming into our pumpkin patch as a result
of that."